Are we going to admit Universities are producing thin-skinned people?

[Argus]

22 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

I think his point of view is reasonable enough to warrant a discussion.  I don't know why it's so difficult to get people to the table.

Perhaps because that philosophy of Marcuse says that the only legitimate and acceptable point of view is that of the Left, and that others have no right to speak against it.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, eyeball said:

I can see how the consequences of what a grand-father did would blowback in his descendants faces if what he did was especially awful. In the case of a really beloved and honoured grand-father where the grand-kids just can't bring themselves to condemn or reconcile the awful things that grand-dad did I can easily see how those consequences would continue blowing back for generations.  

I like your analogy that a nation is like a person. Recall how I often point to big powerful nations that diddle with smaller powerless ones as being an awful lot like an adult who sexually abuses a child. What's most comparable is how the dysfunction that such depravity causes can persist and reverberate down thru the generations.

Most people also have a really tough time facing the fact their grand-dad was a disgraceful pervert, especially in the case of a grand-dad that's regarded as a moral pillar of a community - a Shining Beacon so to speak.

That's all very well until Grandad's victims decide to diddle with your kids. They won't realize or care that you really, really sympathize with them. 

[eyeball]

1 hour ago, bcsapper said:

That's all very well until Grandad's victims decide to diddle with your kids. They won't realize or care that you really, really sympathize with them. 

Well, it's probably a little hard for them to believe you have any whatsoever.  I believe it about as far as I can spit.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Well, it's probably a little hard for them to believe you have any whatsoever.  I believe it about as far as I can spit.

What, Grandparents, kids or sympathy?

I have kids.

[eyeball]

Sympathy, notwithstanding that which you have for our government - the pervert/enabler in question.

[Guest]

35 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Sympathy, notwithstanding that which you have for our government - the pervert/enabler in question.

Well, not since Harper left. I don't want to waste any on JT.  

Regardless, it doesn't help any anyway.  

[eyeball]

Neither does outfitting dictators, something which both Harper and Trudeau support so...just saying. 

 

[Michael Hardner]

I'm not sure where this grandparents discussion fits in, but let's get back to the topic anyway.

[Michael Hardner]

A liberal professor speaks:

https://nyti.ms/2ngXlGo

If we all fail to recognize fake news and to communicate, then the violence won't stop.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

I'm not sure where this grandparents discussion fits in, but let's get back to the topic anyway.

It's eyeball's fault.  He made me do it.

[eyeball]

3 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

I'm not sure where this grandparents discussion fits in, but let's get back to the topic anyway.

 

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

A liberal professor speaks:

https://nyti.ms/2ngXlGo

If we all fail to recognize fake news and to communicate, then the violence won't stop.

Yes, that's what the grandfather discussion was about - how a failure to acknowledge and recognize responsibility ensures that violence persists.

[Argus]

7 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

A liberal professor speaks:

https://nyti.ms/2ngXlGo

If we all fail to recognize fake news and to communicate, then the violence won't stop.

It's behind a pay wall...

[Michael Hardner]

Key Paragraphs:
 

Quote

Students are in college in part to learn how to evaluate sources and follow up on ideas with their own research. The Southern Poverty Law Center incorrectly labels Dr. Murray a “white nationalist,” but if we have learned nothing in this election, it is that such claims must be fact-checked, analyzed and assessed. Faulty information became the catalyst for shutting off the free exchange of ideas at Middlebury. We must all be more rigorous in evaluating and investigating anger, or this pattern of miscommunication will continue on other college campuses.

I am not saying that students shouldn’t protest white nationalism. That it is immoral is not at issue. But there was a direct line between the fighting words on campus, the suppression of speech and the angry mob that gave me a concussion. All violence is a breakdown of communication.

 

[Argus]

2 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

Key Paragraphs:

I understand the snowflakes were outraged because they believed this guy was a white supremacist. However, by the time you're in university you ought to at least know enough to check things out for yourself. And when it really comes down to it, it doesn't matter. Even if he was saying that white were superior to Blacks or whatever, he has a right to say it, and people have a right to come and listen to him. There are a lot of moronic hatemongeres out there giving speeches I don't like, but I don't believe they should be shut down, let alone beaten up. The leader of the Toronto BLM movement being one example of a racist rabble rouser.

[bush_cheney2004]

6 minutes ago, Argus said:

.... Even if he was saying that white were superior to Blacks or whatever, he has a right to say it, and people have a right to come and listen to him. There are a lot of moronic hatemongeres out there giving speeches I don't like, but I don't believe they should be shut down, let alone beaten up. The leader of the Toronto BLM movement being one example of a racist rabble rouser.

 

Agreed....the so called progressives and alt-left first seek to demonize such protected free speech, then shut it down across the board.   Some academics are beginning to push back against the sensitive snowflake brigade, and that's a good thing.

[OftenWrong]

 

2 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

All violence is a breakdown of communication.

When ceaseless yapping gets you nowhere, violence is a form of communication. People are tired of all the talk these days. Information fatigue.
Now what?

[Michael Hardner]

1 hour ago, OftenWrong said:

 

Now what?

They attacked a professor.

[OftenWrong]

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

They attacked a professor.

We are reaching a point where people no longer WANT to listen to reason. I don't know why things are heading that way, but it wasn't always like this. I suspect part of the reason is excessive hyperbole and a refusal by "authorities" on both left and right to be reasonable and find common ground. People don't know what to believe anymore, so they just stop listening. Some start throwing punches.

[Argus]

On 3/23/2017 at 9:41 PM, OftenWrong said:

We are reaching a point where people no longer WANT to listen to reason. I don't know why things are heading that way, but it wasn't always like this.

Maybe it was. But what would have happened to such people a generation ago? Police would have waded into them with nighsticks, bashing heads and dragging them all off to jail. They would have served time, and been expelled from university. Now, all we get is a timid university administration admonishing them very gently about freedom of speech.

[Michael Hardner]

Folks, no personal comments please.

[OftenWrong]

2 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

Folks, no personal comments please.

Not sure what you mean, but thanks for keeping it civil.

 

[Argus]

A liberal psychologist speaks to the cause of the new intolerance on college and university campuses.

People born after 1980 are much more likely to be in a state of moral dependency,” he said. “If somebody has done something to me, I won’t deal with it myself.  I will get an adult authority, a bureaucratic authority, a diversity a department, something to punish the person who did this to me.”

American campuses are now overwhelmingly made up of students born after 1980, many of whom are incapable of resolving conflict on their own.

The result?

A process Haidt calls erasure, in which universities and educators strip away anything that could possibly be construed as unsettling or offensive. Eventually, ideological conformity (on campuses that implies progressivism) replaces original thought.

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/psychologist-breakdown-discourse-im-liberal-professor-and-my-liberal-students-scare-me

Edited April 4, 2017 by Argus

[Argus]

This is another interesting piece on the way SJWs, with encouragement from an overwhelmingly Left wing college staff, has rapidly permeated American (and Canadian) universities to fight against any views which differ from their own.

In the past few years, university campuses have been inundated with memes about safety, social justice, microaggresions and inclusiveness. The new champion of the ‘oppressed’ and the ‘marginalized’ is the Social Justice Warrior. This movement, propelled largely by students, emerged sometime in 2013. Its aim is to eliminate words, ideas, and even whole areas of studies that may cause offence or psychological distress to students, especially among racial, sexual and religious minorities. Through fierce social media campaigning and clamorous public demonstration, these ‘Social Justice’ groups have made their presence felt on campus. Indeed, between summoning their professors to Equal Opportunity Commissions to atone for their ‘marginalizing’ content and getting ‘hateful’ speakers uninvited from special events, their impact on education and political culture has been startling. Armed with an ideology of extreme identity politics, these groups propound narratives about oppression, privilege, and injustice they view are pervading American society. With encouragement from their gender, cultural, and ethnic studies programs to become vocal advocates of these attitudes, some students have set out to change the world.

http://mironline.ca/the-psychology-social-justice/

[bush_cheney2004]

Canada was "permeated" years ago by hate speech laws and HRCs.

The Americans didn't go down that liberal alt-left rabbit hole.

[Moonlight Graham]

On 2017-03-23 at 7:23 PM, Argus said:

I understand the snowflakes were outraged because they believed this guy was a white supremacist. However, by the time you're in university you ought to at least know enough to check things out for yourself. And when it really comes down to it, it doesn't matter. Even if he was saying that white were superior to Blacks or whatever, he has a right to say it, and people have a right to come and listen to him. There are a lot of moronic hatemongeres out there giving speeches I don't like, but I don't believe they should be shut down, let alone beaten up. The leader of the Toronto BLM movement being one example of a racist rabble rouser.

Funny how often those who fight against something become the very thing they're fighting against.  In this case, hatred and intolerance.